Familiar Firs
by Tornainbow
Summary: A little slice of the holidays. Established relationship.


Maura was sliding the long strap of her purse over her shoulder when Jane walked into the morgue at the end of the day. The doctor's coat was on and her desk lamp turned off, sure signs that she was ready to head home. She looked up to see Jane with a cellphone pressed to her ear, discontent by the look of her dark, furrowed brows.

"Ma, it's freezing outside," Jane said loudly, giving Maura a look that spoke of apologies. "Frankie's going, isn't that good enough?"

_"Janie, we do this every year!"_ Angela replied, lapsing into an overly sorrowful tone intended to guilt her daughter into caving in, _"It's family tradition to pick out a Christmas tree together."_

"We never get a tree I like," Jane complained.

Maura greeted her with a poke to the stomach, garnering an exaggerated wince and a playful slap at her finger. Maura whispered, "You're whining."

Jane gripped her fingers around Maura's, pulling her lover into her body. She wrapped her free arm around the doctor, conveniently tucking the shorter woman into her side. She steered them toward the exit while her mother replied, _"You're too picky, Janie. If you had you're way, we'd get one of those fake trees. You know I like the pine during the holidays."_

"That's right I would," Jane shifted her weight heavily to one leg once they reached her car. "That's because the real ones suck to decorate. My hands are going to hurt in the morning."

Letting go of Maura, Jane's hand began fishing through her jacket for her keys. She briefly lost her concentration on both search and conversation when Maura slipped both arms around Jane's hips, bodies pressed close together. It was chilly outside.

"You're probably rushing through the decorating," Maura chimed in, adding, "Lots of people experience a soreness in their hands because of the pine needles pricking them."

Jane gave Maura a withering look.

_"Is that Maura? Invite Maura,"_ Angela questioned, quickly going for Jane's weak point.

"She doesn't want to come," Jane shot back immediately. "We're staying in tonight."

_"Janie! You didn't even ask her!"_

Jane looked at Maura, lips pursed.

Maura smiled, pulling back from the embrace as she slid Jane's keys from the detective's back pocket. She unlocked the passenger door, and handed the keys to Jane, saying, "We're not doing anything tonight. Besides, I haven't seen your parents since Thanksgiving."

"Fine," Jane sighed into the phone, caving in. It might have had something to do with hand squeezing her hip, and the thumb slipping under her shirt to trace her skin.

The scent of pine was overwhelming.

"How about this one?" Angela Rizzoli pointed at a tall, slender tree full of forest green needles.

"Basalm firs are one of the most popular choices this season," Maura replied, eyeing the tree thoughtfully, "And this one is very symmetrical."

"It's not tall enough," Frankie said after giving it his own appraising eye.

Frank Sr. nodded behind him—at least another foot could fit into the living room, "Maura, what do you know about the Douglas trees?"

"It looks weird, and it's too thin," Jane interjected from just outside of the circle. Her family had peppered Maura with questions about each and every tree they came across, delighted at the peculiar facts that had never known about.

"What do you mean it's too thin?" Angela slapped her lightly on the arm. Jane shrugged.

"It is kind of... small," Frank Sr. piped up, getting a muttered "thank-you" from his daughter.

"You know what's too thin? You are," Frankie nudged Jane, giving her a hard time for the sake of it, "She feeding herself right, Maura?"

Maura narrowed her eyes, "You do forget to eat sometimes."

"You know I hate it when you don't take care of yourself," Angela gasped at her daughter.

Jane rolled her eyes. "I thought you wanted a tree? Go back to worrying about termites or something."

"Let's go look at the Fraisers," Maura pulled at the detective's hand, sensing rising ire. Jane was all too happy to go while the rest of the family marched toward the Douglas firs.

"Thanks," Jane said, breaths coming out in wisps of white. "They were getting on my nerves."

"They're just worried. I do too," Maura said softly.

Jane pressed a kiss at Maura's hairline. "I know."

The couple casually walked without direction through the lot. The chill was enjoyable, if only because it gave them a reason to keep as close together as possible. Between them, their hands were entertwined, gloved fingers threaded together.

Occaisionally, they could hear the faint voices of the Rizzoli family a few aisles over.

Maura leaned into Jane, pressing her cheek against the course wool of the detective's coat. The fabric was cheap and worn, sturdy and functional. It reminded her of Jane, and she secretly loved the rough scratch of it against her skin.

After several minutes of wandering, enjoying the silence, and being together, Maura spoke, "I've never picked out a Christmas tree before."

"Really?" Jane glanced down at her, "Not once? Not even when you got your own place?"

"Mhmm," Maura hummed, nodding against Jane's arm. She didn't appear perturbed by it, like many things, and added, "My parents hired decorators every December. They would come in with all of their boxes and spend all day turning our house in the Christmas. When I was little, I loved to just sit and watch everyone. It was a little chaotic and just a little bit magical since the house looked so much different by the time they left. But I've never picked out a tree before."

Jane's brows tensed, always a bit bothered at the longing tone in Maura's voice that the doctor tried to hide. "You've decorated a tree before though, right?" Met with silence, she repeated with incredulity, "You've _never_ decorated a tree?"

Maura laughed, amused at Jane's expression. "I'm decorating one tonight, right?"

"That's right you are," Jane replied with the utmost resolve. She slowed their pace down, moving through the aisle of trees at a near crawl. Pointing at one of the firs, she asked, "You want that one?"

"Are you letting me pick?" Maura couldn't help but smile adoringly. "What if your family already found one they want?"

Jane nudged her. "Don't worry about it."

Giddy light filled Maura's eyes, and she turned to the trees rising interest. Jane fell a step behind her girlfriend, watching Maura look over each tree and knowing that no detail went unnoticed by the medical examiner. Jane honestly didn't care what they ended up with, if only to keep the curve in Maura's delighted expression.

Maura finally made her choice. Jane could tell when Maura took off one of her gloves, reaching a bare hand out and touching the needles of a full, beautiful tree. It looked like Maura was pressing the between the pads of her fingers.

"Hey, Dad found one," Frankie came up behind Jane, pointing his thumb in the direction behind him.

"Nuh uh," Jane gave him a knowing smirk, nodding toward Maura's tree, "We're getting that one."

"Oh yeah?" Frankie chuckled, turning it into a cough when Jane gave him a playful shove.

"Yeah. I _like_ that one. So we're getting it."

"How are your hands?" Maura asked, hanging a gaudy plastic snowman near the top of the tree.

"Not bad," Jane replied from the ground, legs crossed as she dug through a box of tinsel and strings of beads. "So far."

"They shouldn't. It's a Fraiser."

Jane looked up with a lost expression, "A what?"

"A Fraiser fir," Maura repeated, nodding to the tree, "They have softer needles."

"Is that right?" Jane husked.

She quietly watched Maura hang the ornaments as the doctor diligently placed them at even intervals. The tree look a lot better than it had in past Christmas years. Jane and Frankie threw everything on haphazardly. When Maura's hands were empty, Jane snagged her wrist, encouragingly tugging until Maura sat in her lap.

Jane kissed the line of Maura's jaw. "You pick it out on purpose?" she murmured against soft skin.

"Maybe."

"I still think we should've stayed in," Jane said, peppering Maura's neck with kisses to allude to missed activities.

Maura sighed with pleasure, "We're almost done."

"We could be done now," Jane slid a hang along the outside of Maura's thigh until she reached the doctor's hip. She leaned back on her other hand so that Maura had to lean fully into her to keep in contact. "Let's just leave, they won't notice."

Distracted, Maura didn't reply for a few moments. "I think they would." She yelped when Jane suddenly spun them around, pinned against Jane by a hand on her back. Her back hit the floor gently, Jane hovering above her with a mischievious grin.

"Maybe I can convince you to hurry up," Jane leaned down, nose nuzzling against Maura's jaw until the doctor let Jane have her way with the expanse of neck.

Maura's eyes slipped shut, not wanting to point out that this was completely unproductive to finishing the decorating faster. She'd stop Jane in a moment...

"Jane!" came Frankie's peevish cry.

Both Jane and Maura sat up, motions jerky and unsteady. Maura cleared her throat, disguised as a cough into her hand. She glanced sidelong over her shoulder in time to see Frankie slap his palm over his eyes, blocking his own vision. His other hand was outstreched, fingers spread wide as a safety measure.

Jane pulled back, sitting on her heels, "Oh, get over it."

"It's a family occaison," Frankie blinded stepped back, knocking into the doorframe to the kitchen. "I don't wanna see my sister necking anyone on the floor."

"We weren't doing anything!" Jane scoffed.

"Yeah, _sure_," he said sarcastically, "I'm going blind because you're doing _nothing_."

Jane threw a sprig of plastic mistletoe at him, causing him to retreat out of the room with a good-natured cackle. Maura watch with a beaming smile, always enjoying the playful relationship between the two Rizzoli siblings. Jane was chuckling when she turned back to Maura. Leaning forward, the detective plucked pieces of tinsel from Maura's curls.

"You act like you don't love all of this," Maura reached up and brought Jane's hand to her lips. She pressed a kiss to the calloused knuckles before bringing their clasped hands into her lap. Her eyes were soft with affection, "But you do."

"Yeah, maybe a little bit," Jane shrugged a shoulder, trying to reign in the grin fighting to stay on her lips. Suddenly, she popped up onto her feet, pulling Maura up with her. "C'mere."

Maura followed her lover's draw, watching as Jane leaned down to pick up her impropmtu projectile. Jane gave Maura a sidelong smirk. Her long arms reached up and hung the mistletoe on a small, inconspicuous nail above the kitchen doorway.

"So what about this Christmas tradition?" Jane asked with a purposeful tilt of her head, baring the line of her neck enticingly. "You familiar, Dr. Isles?"

"I may have heard about it in passing," Maura playfully went along, hands slipping up the sides of Jane's arms. In her head, she named the muscles her fingers traveled over, the cervical vertebrae at the very top of the spine, until her hands were pressing against the group of posterior cervical muscles at the back of Jane's neck.

In the kitchen, Frankie rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Angela frantically looked around for the camera, but Frank ushered his wife and son out to give his daughter and her girlfriend privacy.

Maura pulled down Jane down until they met in a sweet kiss. It was chaste, but lingering, even after the soft click of a camera.


End file.
